Donuts for charity, sir?

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim

"Donuts for charity, donuts for charity"

People rushing from one lecture to another, ignoring the dudes selling donuts. Some even pretend that they never heard our voices or never saw us no matter how sweet our smiles or how friendly we approached them.

"Donuts for charity mam?"

She smiled whilst replying, " Oh, I don't know we have competitor." This lady is one of the people working for the cafe of The Exchange Building in Jubilee Campus. I smiled, I approached the wrong target customer.

An matured looking gentleman walk pass the stall.

"Donuts for charity, sir?" said one of the fella selling the donuts.

"Pardon me, I'll donate some money but you can take the buns. I am in the middle of my teachings." It happens that he is one of the lecturers rushing to get some coffee. Who knows he might be one of the top professors in the university? I smiled.

"How much is the donut?" asked a guy. When we said the price and the money will go to charity, it still didn't manage to make him contained his feelings and uttered the words, "What? £1 for a donut? That's expensive!" Later on, he pretended that his phone rang, talked into it and walked away. I smiled, because I saw his phone was completely blank and nobody was calling.

Entering maghrib, it was around 5pm. We took turns performing our maghrib prayers at a corner and selling the remaining donuts.

"Donuts for charity? Come on sir, you know you want them," one of us said to a guy walking to and fro passing us. Finally he stopped by, bought some donuts and we smiled.

Closing Time

It was about time we packed up. Out of sudden, a couple of people came to buy a box of donuts each. Few boxes of donuts sold in a matter of minutes when we were about to wrap up.

At the end of the day, I felt this feeling tingling in my vein, the feeling that I can't really find words for it. It was a happy, satisfying, worth the effort, tiring but fun experience. What touched me most was I can see how I react at other times when other people were trying doing the effort of selling things or fund raising for charities. I can see sometimes I ignored like they weren't there, I pretended I didn't hear or see them, some people pretended the phone rang when the phone was completely blank, talked into it and walked away. What ever reaction people gave me that day, it reflected back on me.

Now I know how they feel.

Donuts for Charity? But attention was on their iPhones -_-"

Ibn MuSa
Dunkirk 2010
Zulhijjah 1431

Missing my basketball doses makes me sick

Bismillah ar-Rahman ar-Rahim

Basketball is my passion

I love basketball. In fact, I love basketball so much. This is the sport that I started when I entered high school. The basketball court was the first beautiful view I saw at that school. I started to have my hands on the basketball, played rubbish and went through the hardship of being rookie, being laughed at by the senior students, was one of the 5 members of basketball club when nobody else wanted to join it back then. I went through the hardship of being part of the only non-Chinese team in Kuala Selangor district when all other schools were looking forward to beat us. I went through being "rejected" to play in the school team in 2000 because the coach wanted me to give my place to the only final year senior who did not made to the team. Seniority.... sigh...

I was part of the team that played well when we were underdogs, when we all couldn't afford to buy fancy Nike, Converse and Adidas basketball shoes and everybody wore some cheap badminton shoes and I wore RM7 Pallas Jazz. I was part of the team which played crap when we had sponsors for our jersey with our names written on it, when all my team mates rewarded them selves with nice expensive basketball shoes for fashion rather than playing and when we started the "curse" of losing at the Zone Division in Boarding School basketball league. Ever since, I don't recall the name KUSESS in the National Level of Boarding School Basketball Tournament.

I remember the good times and will always cherish the good times when we played well, when my team mate scored a buzzer beater and won the semi, when we chased from behind and beaten one of the Chinese teams in Kuala Selangor with multiple 3 pointers, led Garnet team to the championship and left a legacy behind in KYUEM. I remember the good time of playing in the team named "Sampah" for 3-on-3 with my team mates Dr Muaz and Shakkir and won second place and playing for fun during my final year in University with my mates.

I miss my basketball doses.

Life goes on, people move forward with their dreams and ambitions. My mates have left university and started a new life. Ariff Sod, Din, Kyo, Azim, Hartono, I'm going to miss so much playing basketball with you. Although it was short, it was fun and I wish you the best for your future! Now that I'm no longer a student in University of Nottingham, I wish the best to the rest to carry on the legacy. Akashah, Neo, Yuri, Rudy and Cha, when is our next basketball session?

Today, it marks more than 6 weeks of missing my basketball doses. God, that IS long!

Basketball makes me feel good. A lot of my tweets and facebook status updates talk about "Basketball never disappoint me". Nowdays, the only way for me to quench my thirst of basketball is via watching NBA. But that is not enough, I want to play, I want to play, I want to play!

Literally, losing my basketball doses makes me don't feel good.

Ibn MuSa
Dunkirk 2010
Zulhijjah 1431H